Lewis Hamilton's Extreme E team wins sustainability award

7-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton's Extreme E team X44 won the 'Extreme E Sustainability Award' for the 2021 season. The team, founded in 2020 is named with reference to Lewis’ own racing number - 44. The team came up just short of the 2021 Championship, behind Hamilton's former teammate and 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg's team 'Rosberg X Racing'

Extreme E launched the 'Count Us In Challenge' ahead of its first season as part of a campaign using the power of sport and motor racing to inspire fans to take practical steps towards climate change. In the challenge, various tasks were featured for fans to contribute towards a greener future - avoiding the use of single-use plastics, using sustainable modes of transport among others. Every step taken by a fan counted towardtheir team's score.

Lewis Hamilton's 'X44' earned the most steps with 792, with 2009 F1 Champion Jenson Button's 'JBXE' squad finishing second with 749 steps and 'RXR' finishing third with 422 steps. In total, 3,207 steps were pledged by 1,231 fans to save 1,241,223kg of carbon dioxide.

X44 features legendary Rallying legend Sébastian Loeb and Spanish driver Cristina Gutiérrez. Commenting on the award, Loeb said:

“I was very happy to learn that X44 won the Extreme E Sustainability Award for 2021. To know that our fans have come on this journey with us and are making their own commitment to have a positive impact on the planet is inspiring and I feel good about what we can achieve when we work together."

Lewis Hamilton quitting F1 would be a ‘disgrace’, says Mercedes boss

Mercedes chief Wolff hopes he sees the 7-time champion back at the grid for the 2022 season

Mercedes F1 Team Principal Totto Wolff said it would be a disgrace to the sport if Lewis Hamilton quits the sport after his heartbreak at the title-decider at the Yas Marina, with him losing out on his record 8th WDC to Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton has not spoken publicly of the incident since, and amid speculations of the Brit quitting the sport, Totto admitted there was no guarantee of his return to the grid for the 2022 season. He continued :

"He was unbeatable that day, until race control blew its fuses. They committed three violations of the rules. That's just hard to understand. It will always follow us - although Max Verstappen was a worthy world champion over the season. But that day, one was better than the other - and they didn't win."